Kukla's Korner Hockey

The committee passed two motions Monday morning. The first was to keep the Rideau Carleton Raceway as the only place for expanded gaming facilities and the second was to cap the amount of gaming tables, with reduced operating hours.

The decisions appeased some community associations that spoke about the negative effects of gambling, but drew contempt from the owner of the Ottawa Senators....

The owner of the Ottawa Senators, Eugene Melnyk, said that without the extra revenue the future of the club is at risk.

"I don't get it," said Melnyk about the committee's decision.

Melnyk went on to highlight how much his franchise is involved in the city.

"You know, I don't want to say who's more important and who gives more to the community but I will," he said.

"I think we are doing a lot for the community, everybody knows it, I don't have to repeat it," said Melnyk.

"We just do it because we want to do it," he said. "What are they giving back to the community?"

Comments

I’m not saying Melnyk is lying (I have no idea what the Sens finances are like). But it really seems like since Melnyk bought the team, every year at least once or twice we get a sky is falling story like this. It is getting tiresome.

He said players for the Ottawa Senators are always at community events and that some teams are not involved at all in their cities.

Which ones?

This guy’s throwing everybody under the bus now.

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about the Ottawa gaming stuff and it actually sounds like Melnyk is getting an unfair deal as far as being given the short end of a preferential deal which prevents competition, but the way he’s going about telling everybody how unfair he might has it is downright bratty.

I wonder if Gary Bettman is going to let Melnyk keep dragging his mouth and the rest of the league through the mud like this.

My guess is someone else comes along and just keeps the team in Ottawa.

I was just being a wise @ss, but every time there is a hint of turmoil in a small non-traditional US market, the Canadian media has the moving vans packed for Quebec. Where is the outcry to move the team to a more viable market?

Melnyk the whiner and Ottawa that seems to go out of their way to ensure nothing they do helps the Sens seem to be perfect fit.

Every major sports franchise owner has some pull with the local government. They’re all rich guys, usually local and of course they have connections. Melnyk’s problem is, he stoops to the level of outright saying it. He’s made it clear he feels entitled to it, or else he may have to close shop on the team :(.... over and over, he cries about it.

If he can’t float the team, sell it. Don’t act like the city and citizens of Ottawa owe you anything because otherwise you’ll take their team away. Everybody knows that’s a total bluff. They know it because they they all saw what happened in Phoenix…. the NHL takes over the team for a couple years and sells it to a new owner. But it’s Ottawa, not Phoenix, so it should only take a couple of months, not years.

Generally speaking, I’m loathe to side with the sort of think-of-the-children groups who have hissy-fits about how many slot machines there are at a racetrack, but Eugene Melnyk is 8 shades of shady.

If he’s pushing something, it should be met with a metric ton of skepticism. This guy’s got a club in Ontario and has, allegedly, somehow lost 90 million dollars in the last three years, despite having relatively low payrolls. Without shenanigans, I just can’t see how that’s possible.